Unfortunately, today we had a very late start due to the typical problem that KREJ tends to run into every time we film something… we we’re locked out of the location (You might remember on Tim and Katie, we were locked out of the gate that leads to the cabin, and we may or may not have cut the chains to get in there). Fortunately enough, we weren’t locked out of the entire location. See, the plan was to shoot a scene out in front of a local exterminator’s office, and then go behind the building, which is surrounded by a locked fence, to shoot three more. The plan was for the manager of said exterminators to have someone leave the gate unlocked for us last night. Alas, there was a misunderstanding, and either the person in charge of leaving the gate unlocked for us failed miserably, or some other asshole came along, saw an unlocked lock, and with the impression that they were doing good, did the opposite. So, we had to shoot the one scene out front, and then move another scene, that was meant to be shot in the back, to the front, which, in the long run, ended up working out just fine.
But, there was still the problem of the remaining two scenes that we had originally planned on shooting behind the building. We lucked out though, and came up with a last minute replacement location. So I want to thank Tommy and Lee, my managers at the pizza place I work at, for allowing us to film behind the store, as well as full use of the back door to complete our scenes. And all we had to do for it was take out all the trash for them. A few of the people on the set fell in love with me a little bit when I introduced them to the walk-in freezer, which after two days of filming in the hot sun, was the greatest feeling in the world. Next time, we just need to write a film about two guys who sit at home all day, wearing shorts, and enjoying their air conditioning. Probably won’t be too interesting of a movie, but damn would it be nice to film.
Things went a little smoother today, due to the fact that we only had 4 actors total working today, instead of the 7 we had yesterday. All of today’s scenes featured Craig, Steven, and myself, and we had a short, but really fun scene with Carla, who was a real sport to put up with some of the lines directed to her by Craig’s hilarious character Ron. After the slow start of the morning, things moved relatively quickly once we got the ball rolling, and we only slowed down a little when large clouds started blocking the sunlight for sometimes up to 5 or 10 minutes at a time (At which point we’d visit our old friend the walk in). But we pushed through, got some good footage, including our first scene of this project where we got to experiment some and do a bit of improv. I can’t wait to see what of all the improvised stuff we did ends up in the final edited film. I can think of a few hilarious lines that Craig delivered that I would love to see in there. There was also this great moment in a scene where Steven’s character is supposed to storm around the corner of the building, in a rage. When Kaminski yelled action, Steven, not telling anybody he was going to do this, launches a traffic cone (that I still don’t know to this second where it came from) from around the building, and stomps straight up to me. I had a hard time to keep from laughing, as I didn’t expect it at all.
One thing that I'm really glad that we're doing this time around, is taking a lot of pictures. The entire time that we're on set, whether we're filming or just sitting around waiting, someone is always carrying a camera, and constantly snapping photos. Trent, Matt, and Jerry got a lot of great pics today, and a lot we're taken yesterday as well. Hopefully, we'll be able to post a few of those up on the website or our KREJ Productions Facebook group as soon as possible (become a member if you haven't already).
At around 3:30, we finished all of our exterior Lawrenceville scenes, but unfortunately, the set backs from the whole location fiasco put us far enough off schedule that we didn’t have time to move on the our last location, an office building in Conyers. But that’s ok. That’s what make-up days are for. I do want to apologize to Richard Hoard though, because we didn’t get to shoot his scenes, which is a shame, because I was looking forward to those.
I do wanna say that, despite these set-backs, the heat, and all the general headaches that come from film making, today, Hell the whole weekend for that matter, has been a lot of fun. One of the best times we’ve had making movies here at KREJ. We have a fantastic group of hard-working, hilarious, and talented people putting a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into this thing. So, we have to start dipping into our stored up make-up days. But doesn’t that just mean we get another day together, to work hard, and laugh harder? I like to think of it that way.
Two weeks is a long time to wait to until our next shooting day. The worst part about shooting all weekend, and then going back to work all week, is dealing with your regular job responsibilities, while the whole time thinking how much you’d rather be on set. No matter how much crap we have to put up with during a shoot, it’s always a hundred times better than the day job. I’m very much looking forward to shooting again, because next time we’ve got a lot more actors coming in, including Jan Lefrançois-Gijzen and Dasha Jordan, from our improv class, and Diane Dicker and Steve Pryor, who answered our casting call, as well as the return of Craig, Steven, Trent, Lake, and myself. Can’t wait.
Well, until next time,
-Grantzy
